War of the Trident
The 'War of the Trident '''is something of a misnomer, for while most of the fighting did take place in the Riverlands, it also spread out into various kingdoms with various factions competing for control. In fact, it cannot even be considered one single war, but rather a series of wars between various kingdoms that have been lumped in to the greatest conflict of them all. What follows are the major events, in the most orderly way we can give them. Prelude The War Begins (290 AA) King Goodbrother has fallen ill on the Seastone Chair. Many of the most powerful Ironborn houses are looking to make a name for themselves for the inevitable Kingsmoot that will soon follow. Lord Harlaw decides that the best way to make his name known is to raid up and down the coast of the Riverlands. Prince Justyn Fletcher, heir to the Riverlands, takes his younger brother Tommen along with five hundred of his father’s best knights to meet them in the field. Every single one of them met their deaths at the hands of the Ironborn, with Lord Harlaw killing both Fletcher brothers personally. The Succession Crisis While their west coast was currently beset by ironborn, the Riverlanders soon found out that their greatest threat would come from within. With the death of his two sons, the only remaining Fletcher heir that Tristifer Fletcher had was his infant granddaughter Mia. The old king was inconsolable, shutting himself inside of Harrenhal to mourn. With the absence of the king and both of his princes, various claimants start popping out of the woodwork. In quick succession, Lord Bracken puts forward his claim only to be contested by Lord Blackwood, House Darry spirited Princess Mia away to be married to their young heir, and House Mallister attempted to maintain the delicate balance and act in King Tristifer’s interests. War The War of the Trident The Riverlands soon erupted into full scale war, with Bracken and Blackwood in particular engaging in nasty skirmishes. Mallister and Darry clashed on the Green Fork, but none of the combatants were able to have a definitive victory over the other. Blackwood and Mallister were trying to stave on Ironborn, whilst Darry and Bracken had to divert precious forces to attack one another. The war remains in a stalemate, but not for long. Winter Comes for the Ironborn ''(Early 291 AA): Feeling the pressure from Harlaw’s infamous raid upon House Fletcher, Prince Torgon Goodbrother, eldest son of the King, declares his intention to raid the entire expanse of the North from Cape Kraken to Bear Island. Upon hearing of the destruction, and eager to avoid the gruesome fate of House Fletcher, King Torrhen sends his son and heir Prince Brandon, along with his bastard the White Wolf, to stop the advancing raiders. In a daring surprise attack, the White Wolf killed Prince Torgon himself, although Brandon Stark would meet his end on the end of an ironborn blade. Torgon’s death ended the Ironborn’s reason for raiding and severely limited House Goodbrother’s control and influence over the Iron Islands. The Iron King would recover from his sickness, but House Goodbrother wouldn’t. The War Crosses Borders As the year 291 began, another kingdom began its quest for power. House Gardener, keen to expand its borders however it could, declared war upon the Kingdom of the Trident under the thin pretense of being descended from the King of all First Men. Thousands of armored knights, bearing the sigil of the Green Hand, swarmed from the south, smashing aside all of the paltry resistance the Riverlords could muster. At the Battle of Hollow Hill, King Gwayne Gardener led the charge that broke Lord Tully’s resistance and marched his army all the way up to Riverrun where he settled in for a siege. While he sat outside the walls of Tully’s keep, his knights pillaged and burned the surrounding countryside, taking all of the lands south of it in the process. The Falcon Rises Seeing an opportunity to stake his claim on the Riverlands, King Andar Arryn sweeps down from the Vale of Arryn and quickly occupies all of the Riverlands east of the Green Fork, forcing House Darry to make an ignoble retreat to the Twins after a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of King Andar and his best soldier, Lord Corbray. Seeing that their forces are stretched too thin, King Andar moves most of his soldiers to siege Harrenhal. While the Knights of the Vale were fearsome and more than a match for the Riverlanders and their half-mad king, the walls of Harrenhal, burned as they were, stood tall and the siege continued for months, with no sign of a clear victor. Clash of Titans Eventually, even though both armies were bogged down by time consuming and costly sieges, Gardener and Arryn started to have their advance scouts coming into contact with each other. For King Gwayne, it was a small matter of having another army led by his brother Gareth come forward from the Reach to defeat them. King Andar, loathe to involve any more of his people in a war that was going on for entirely too long, met in secret with the Kings Celtigar and Darklyn. There, they formed a bargain to drive back the Reach and take the kingdom’s famed lands and riches for themselves. A combined Celtigar/Darklyn army soon marched down towards Bitterbridge, hoping to avert Gardener domination across most of Westeros. A Deal with the Golden Devil With most independent forces being forced to the west of the Trident, and having almost no men left after driving Harlaw out of Seagard, the situation looked grim for Lord Mallister, the leader of the free Riverlanders. His King was secluded in Harrenhal, mired by his own depression, and all those who would help them were either dead or driven inside of castle walls. It was at this moment, that a secret raven was sent from Riverrun in the dead of night, over the heads on the unsuspecting Reachmen and into the hands of Tyran Lannister, King of the Rock. In the letter, Tully made a bargain to save the Riverlands: the hand of my daughter, and all the riches the West could want, in exchange for help that was desperately needed. He did not ask for the kingship of the Trident, nor did he ask for any power for himself, all he wished for was aid in his time of need. But the King of the Rock would not listen. He decreed that the West would only fight for the West, and it was foolish of them to help others. Most agreed, it was a suicide mission. Only one disagreed: his son, Prince Tyrion. Leaving Casterly Rock in secret, Tyrion gathered what forces he could from houses he could count on and made for the Golden Tooth with all haste. The bargain was stuck, and Westeros would hear the lion roar. Warriors of Opportunity Upon seeing warriors from both the Reach and Westerlands leave their shores precariously undefended, two more Ironborn houses rose up to claim superiority in what they thought was a potential Kingsmoot. House Drumm decided that the Reach looked particularly vulnerable and sailed down to bathe the region in blood. Greyjoy, on the other hand, looked at the west and thought it was time to deprive them of their precious gold. Lord Qorwyn Drumm made a daring raid upon Oldtown, and overtook the defenses with lightning speed. Once inside, he occupied the Citadel, destroying various works of art. It is rumored that he looked for every mention of King Gwayne’s name, and replaced with with the word ‘King Tit-Licker’, using the chronicles of past Gardener kings to wipe his ass with after using the bathroom. When King Gwayne was told the news, it was reported that he turned red with fury and ordered half of his army to march back and retake his lands. Greyjoy appeared out of the mist one morning just off of Fair Isle. He took the island quickly, plundering much of their wealth and issuing a personal challenge to the aging, yet still fearsome King Tyran: Face me, or watch the island burn. The First Victory ''(Early 292 AA): ''Out of nowhere, and with complete surprise, Prince Tyrion Lannister rode at the front of 6,000 Westerland knights charged into the Reach encampment surrounding Riverrun. Able to pick off a third of Gwayne’s army at a time, Tyrion dealt the Gardener king a massive blow, but Gwayne was an able commander and a fearsome warrior. Rallying his men, he made an ordered, steady retreat, saving his army from total annihilation. He also handed the young, inexperienced Lannister severe losses of his own, making the prince unable to pursue. Lord Tully did not care however, for this was their first real victory of the war. That night, Tully married off his eldest daughter to Prince Tyrion, and the Rivermen left out a massive cheer. Now, they finally had a chance. Mallister Resurgent Hearing of the victory at Riverrun, Lord Mallister makes a desperate attempt to push back the Arryn soldiers on the Blue and Green Forks. Although they are foiled in their attempts by Lords Corbray and Royce, there was a victory nestled in their defeat. Robar had to pull back, he had lost too many troops. At Harrenhal, Arryn was forced to make a decision: he elected to march west in an attempt to either fight Lannister or Gardener. If one was knocked out, it would be easy for him to win the war. Fury of the Green Fist Although dealt a defeat at Riverrun, Gwayne Gardener was still a force to be reckoned with. Every time Lannister and Tully sent an attack his way, Gardener made them pay for their advance. Although continually forced to retreat, he was eventually able to get a battleground of his choosing, luring the Lannister/Tully army into Stoney Sept trapping them inside. At the Battle of Bitterbridge, Gareth Gardener, with help from Ser Tyrell, dealt the Celtigar/Darklyn army a crippling blow. The two kings were forced to retreat up to Duskendale, with even more problems ahead of them in the future. Battle of Stoney Sept Trapped with very few options, Prince Tyrion Lannister initiates battle against King Gwayne Gardener’s forces (by beheading Lord Redwyne during a surrender demand no less). Although fighting valiantly, it is clear they are outnumbered and tiring fast. It looks to be an easy victory for Gardener when war horns sound to the east. Descending fast down the hill, Andar Arryn and the entire Vale host enter into the fray and begin fighting both sides equally. The new development favors the Lannisters, as there are simply more Gardeners to kill and less enemies on all sides to fight. Valor and horror were displayed by all armies in equal measure, but the battle turned in favor of the Lannisters and Tullys, with Prince Tyrion killing the young heir to the Vale, Robar Arryn, and King Gwayne simply losing too many of his men to continue the fighting. Both invading armies made the long, slow retreat back to the homelands. The Riverlands had won, the Trident would remain independent, but the price was high, and many wondered if the kingdom could survive when the next crisis came. A Rising Storm Observing most of the war without intervening, King Durrandon devised a plan to sweep the war as victor. He sent an expiditionary force in the Claw and Dusklands, claiming his men claiming that they were there to assist in the defense of the small kingdoms against larger enemies. Further on, closer ot the end of the war, King Durran Durrandon declared war on both the Dusklands and the Claw, claiming to be saving them from the influence of the Arryns and the Gardeners by making them client kingdoms. Most of the expidtionary force turning on the two kingdoms, though some had new found loyalty to their brothers-in-arms. Darklyn, too battered and weary from war to resist, surrendered peacefully without a fight. Celtigar, a stubborn and volatile man by nature, refused and marched to meet Durran in battle. The Storm King crushed him easily. Killing the man, and sending his son back home in chains to show his humility and obedience. When Gareth Gardener tried to intervene and attack the Stormlands in a vain attempt to stop them, King Durran met them in the field as well. His heavy infantry, and knowledge of the terrain made Gareth’s mistake a costly one. The Reach army was wiped out, and King Durran took Lord Bulwer's Valyrian Steel helmet for himself as a reward befitting a conquering hero, replacing the bull horns on the helmet with those of a stag’s he personally killed to celebrate the occasion. Peace Bittersweet Victory Upon returning home to Casterly Rock after the war, Tyrion Lannister was greeted with terrible news: his father had foolishly gone to meet the Greyjoys on Fair Isle while Tyrion was away, and the Ironborn had made him pay a terrible price. The Lannister fleet was destroyed, and King Tyran was latched to the front of Greyjoy’s warship, slowly rotting over the next few months until his skeleton fell into some nameless spot in the Sunset Sea. House Reyne paid a terrible price too, with Greyjoy killing their lord as well, and taking Red Rain for his own, which they still own to this day. Tyrion Lannister left home a prince, but came back a king, taking all the blame personally and horribly scarred from his experiences in war. Aftermath The North The North survived the war relatively unscathed, although they had lost their dearly beloved crown prince, the White Wolf’s valor and actions had show their father Torrhen that perhaps the North would be better off under the rule of the bastard, not to lift the exile of the Black Wold instead. The Trident The Riverlands was shattered. House Fletcher limped on to a death that everyone saw coming except King Tristifer. Lord Mallister did the best he could to stem the tide, but Tristifer Fletcher seemed all too eager to spend his way into grief, and Lord Frey was all to eager to give him the money to do so. Vultures circle the Trident, and who could blame them. The corpse that’s about to expire will be a tasty meal indeed. The Vale The Vale lost the War of the Trident, but it still remained in good shape. The Vale lost an heir, but soon gained another when the Queen gave birth soon after the war. The High Septon still resides in the Vale, and King Robar’s claim on the Riverlands remains strong as ever. The Vale would recover, and it would never forget. The Rock The Westerlands emerged a victor, but the price they paid for victory was steep. Some would even say too steep. They had much rebuilding to do, and not much to show for their victory. Still, they were precariously perched at the top of the wheel of power after the War of the Trident, and that was a spot that every other kingdom desperately wanted to knock them off from. The Reach The Reach was humiliated during the War of the Trident, with Oldtown getting sacked, the brother of the king dead on the battlefield, and many dead knights. Instead of sapping Gwayne’s powerbase, it strengthened it. Lannister got lucky, they all knew it. Gardener was the better commander, and they would conquer them all one day. They just needed time. Time they would use to prepare, and come back stronger and scarier than ever. The Stormlands The Stormlands, while playing a little part in the war, came out victorious in that King Durran Durrandon subjugated the Kingdoms of the Claw and the Dusklands after they lost much of their strength. Category:Kingdom of the Trident Category:Kingdom of the Claw Category:Kingdom of the Dusklands Category:Kingdom of the Stormlands Category:War Category:Battles